Its lyrics are based on verses from struggle era trade unionist and poet Alfred Temba Qabula. On the CD, those two groups of composers sit on either side of an extended centrepiece: Walking Song by Dlamini, Houtcamp and Sitas. In the end, he had 21 short electronic pieces, half from South Africa and half from places as diverse as Mozambique, Nigeria, Mexico, Germany, Uruguay, the Faroe Islands and more. I thought back to that ‘bowscape’, as he called it, and started imagining a whole CD … of new ones.īlake contacted composers across the world, sending South African bow samples on request.
Blake told me that after Bräuninger’s death he was looking for a way to honour him: To that, Bräuninger contributed the only electronic soundscape, Tsiki’s Got a Headache, which opens this new recording. He had helmed the first Bow Project album in 2010, a collection of mostly string quartet works honouring the musicianship of traditional bow master the late NoFinishi Dywili. South African composer Michael Blake, professor at Africa Open, co-ordinated the album as well as contributing a track. Jürgen would encourage me to be more ‘curious’ in my musical explorations … much of my recent music has to do with creating seemingly incompatible musical ideas and contexts in which they make sense, appealing to that curiosity.Ī longtime collaborator, Netherlands-based Luc Houtcamp, with musician and bow scholar Sazi Dlamini and poet Ari Sitas, created their work because, says Sitas, “We owed it to Jürgen.” South African composer Njabulo Phungula, a former student of Bräuninger, recalls: When I interviewed some of the composers who had contributed tracks to the album for this review, it became clear how influential working with him had been.
Bräuninger advocated innovation in composing and playing. Tribute to Jürgen Bräuningerīowscapes is a tribute to the late German-born, South African-based composer and music professor Jürgen Bräuninger, who died in 2019. And how composers, whether inside or outside its communities of origin, should treat it.
Released by the Africa Open Institute for Music Innovation and Research at Stellenbosch University, its 21 newly-composed electronic tracks illustrate how heritage and innovation can interact in “traditional” music. Now a new compilation CD, Bow Project 2: Bowscapes, brings that impact to the fore.
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